With $50 million, one would think Michael Bloomberg and his anti-gun
cronies could afford to conduct some focus testing. However, judging from the
reaction to the latest fear-mongering ad from Bloomberg’s Everytown group, the ex-mayor
and his astroturf activists are clueless when it comes to women and firearms.

The ad depicts a mother and child
alone in a house. A man begins pounding on the door, demanding entry. The woman
calls 9-1-1 and explains that her “ex” is trying to break in, and she has a
restraining order against him. While the woman is still on the phone, the man
bursts through the door and grabs the child.As the unarmed woman futilely attempts to stop him, he pulls a gun. The
screen fades to black, and a gunshot is heard.

The ad was released to coincide
with a congressional hearing aimed at expanding federal firearm prohibitions
pertaining to misdemeanor convictions and restraining orders. Yet the reaction
to many who saw the ad makes clear that it does nothing so much as illustrate
the limitations of those measures.

As the “ex” pounds on the door, he
yells, “This is my house!” However unwittingly, the producers of the ad thus
establish that the man would almost certainly be prohibited under current
federal law from possessing a firearm, insofar as he cohabitated with the
woman, and she had obtained an order of protection against him.

In any event, as far as the ad is
concerned, the order appeared to provoke the man, rather than restrain him; the
police could not respond in time to enforce it; and whatever legal
repercussions the man faced for possessing a firearm illegally were manifestly
not a deterrent. How this argues for the expansion of any of these measures is
unclear.

On the other hand, the ad does
make a rather compelling argument for the proposition that the only thing that
could have saved the woman once the man burst through the door was her own
exercise of the right to armed self-defense.

Much like Bloomberg’s botched launch into
“grassroots” organizing, the ad’s debut has once
again shown the ex-mayor’s paid activists being outmaneuvered by grassroots gun
rights supporters. Within hours of the video’s release, bloggers were extolling
the pro-gun message of Everytown’s new effort. Others have edited the video to
show what might have happened had the mother been armed (efforts that
Bloomberg’s lawyers scrambled to censor). Journalist Katie Pavlich’s commentary on the ad
was followed by a different commercial, which now has
over two million online views, that demonstrates a far more favorable outcome
to a home invasion in which the female resident was armed.

Lest anyone think this
interpretation of the Everytown ad is confined to the pro-gun community, the
sentiment has been shared by a diverse audience. Following a viewing of the ad
on ABC’s The View, a show aimed squarely at a modern female demographic, host
Sherri Shepherd told the story of time she was fearful of a break-in and
suggested that women use firearms to defend themselves and their children.
Following Shepherd’s comments, guest Juliet Huddy and host Jenny McCarthy
shared experiences where they felt threatened and wished they had been armed.

The attitudes these women on The
View expressed towards firearms are emblematic of broader trends in gun
ownership. Media outlets are replete with stories of more purchasing firearms,
learning to shoot, and acquiring Right-to-Carry
permits. In February 2013, the New York Times ran
an article titled, “Rising Voice of Gun Ownership is
Female.” The item cited a National Shooting Sports Foundation survey that
found, “73 percent of gun dealers said the number of female customers had gone
up in 2011, as had a majority of retailers surveyed in the two previous years.”
Further, NSSF’s report “First Time Gun Buyers”
concluded that, “women are motivated to purchase
their first firearm predominately for personal defense.”

In contrast to Bloomberg’s
campaign to expand largely symbolic federal gun control measures are state and
federal legislative options that can help to provide real security for those
under the threat of impending violence. For instance, in Ohio a person can apply for a 90-day temporary emergency concealed
carry handgun license. This allows for a
person who submits evidence of being in imminent danger to be promptly issued a
Right-to-Carry permit, bypassing the lengthier issuance process that normally
applies. Similar laws apply in Wisconsin (see section 175.60(9r)) and other states.

In some cases, those facing
violence must flee their homes. Proposed federal Right-to-Carry reciprocity
legislation(see related article) would
ensure that permit holders facing this circumstance could exercise their right
to defend themselves regardless of where in the country they were forced to go.

Everytown’s latest miscalculation
is symptomatic of a well-heeled organization with limited actual insight into
the issue on which they presume to advocate on or the people who they are
trying to engage. Thankfully, survey and sales figures indicate those concerned
with personal safety have increasingly put their faith in the tools of
self-defense, rather than empty promises from politicians and gun control
advocates.

Note: Michael R.
Bloomberg is the founder of Everytown
for Gun Safety, a co-chair for Mayors
Against Illegal Guns, Emma Bloomberg’s
daughter,was the New York (NY) mayor, a donor for the Robin Hood Foundation, and a benefactor
for the Harlem Children's Zone.

Emma
Bloomberg is Michael R. Bloomberg’s
daughter, and was the senior planning officer for the Robin Hood Foundation.

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Sam on Bob Harden Show

Who Is Aristotle the Hun

"Aristotle the Hun" was the name given to me more than 30 years ago when a friend noticed that in spite of my intellect I was still an Iowa farm boy.

Rev. Sam Sewell, is Director of Best Self USA, a Pastoral Psychotherapist, serves on the faculty of Naples Community Hospital as an instructor for Clinical Pastoral Education, President of the Theological Center in Naples, a member of Mensa where he serves as Gifted Youth Coordinator, a U.S. Navy Veteran, and a Member of the Association For Intelligence Officers. He is a frequent commentator on mental health and religious issues.His award winning research on family issues is published in several languages. Member of Sigma Delta Chi Honor Society

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Quotation Gallery

"Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men."- St. Augustine

"A new idea is first condemned as ridiculous, and then dismissed as trivial, until finally it becomes what everybody knows." -

William James

"This is the real task before us: to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we, as a free people, hope to protect our own heritage and make it someday the birthright of all men." --Ronald Reagan

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."-- Edward Abbey

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."John Stuart Mill

"A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined, but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." ~~~George Washington

"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University." William F. Buckley, Jr.

"Conservatives are enemies of the government. Liberals are enemies of the nation because they are not enemies of the government."Aristotle the Hun

"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"Albert Einstein

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain." ANON

"That government is best which governs least."Thomas Paine

“A nation that substitutes emotion and empathy for rational thought will eventually digress into the Dark Ages,”Congressman Steve King (R-IA),

INTEGRITY: The highest courage is to dare to be ourself in the face of adversity. Choosing ethics over convenience and truth over popularity means there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.

The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

They may be more likely to go to Heaven for good intentions yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.~ C. S. Lewis

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote." ANON

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The government is conspiring against the citizens. The citizens have pitchforks, torches, tea bags, tea parties, Grand Juries and the Constitution. The government doesn't stand a chance!

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The famous Chapter 16 from "I Fired My Doctors" thathas become a "best seller" as a separate publication.

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